I am returning to the world of book blogging after months of inactivity and private frustration at the lack of an outlet. My reading is not quite as prolific as it was mid-2010, and this time around I’m going to be blogging to keep up with my reading, not reading to keep up with the impossibility of a self-imposed schedule of blogging.

A major thank you to anyone who commented, emailed, tweeted or (nicely!) confronted me personally during my sudden absence. Your words have been most encouraging and if it were possible I’d take you all out for coffee and a long browse through a bookstore.

New books acquired in February 2011

• Camera Lucida by Roland Barthes
• How Green Was My Valley by Richard Llewellyn
• Bright Lights, Big City by Jay McInerney
• Brightness Falls by Jay McInerney
• The Crying of Lot 49 by Thomas Pynchon
• Collected Stories by Tennessee Williams
• Notebooks by Tennessee Williams, edited by Margaret Bradham Thornton

Not quite as much as I would have usually bought in the past as my bookbuying habits have been severely curtailed for a number of reasons. However, I like to think that this just means I’m more selective about what I purchase. Maybe, maybe not!

I thought this section was going to be blank this week, but thanks to Sunday deliveries in the lead up to Christmas (a simple pleasure, really.) here’s what arrived. Books that seem to wildly contradict the very frustrating reading/blogging rut I seem to be in. Or maybe old Dosty could prove just the cure!

• The Idiot by Fyodor Dostoyevsky
• Essays by George Orwell

Marginalia

I started on my summer project this week. Cataloguing, on LibraryThing of course, all my, and my sisters, old childhood books. We didn’t keep all of our children’s books, but there are still at least three very large boxes to go through. I’ve already found some old favourites, rediscovered long forgotten stories that captured my imagination as a young’n and had some fun looking through the old books. We’ve even got a tattered old copy of one of my Dad’s old childhood books! So many memories come rushing back while going through these books, so many hours spent in their pages, I can only hope that one day my current library will provide the same rush of fond nostalgia.

• The Adventures of Tintin: Red Rackham’s Treasure by Hergé
• The Adventures of Tintin: The Seven Crystal Balls by Hergé
• The Adventures of Tintin: Tintin in the Congo by Hergé

I’m a bit keen on the quiffed boy reporter lately. I’m going to save my Tintin series of posts until 2011, not too far away now scarily enough. The Tintin in the Congo edition is quite interesting, it came sealed and with a red band label on it warning that the content may be offensive to contemporary readers. I’m sure that I’ve read this one before though, so perhaps the label is a result of the recent attempt to censor the book? It is a minor annoyance, but one that fellow book obsessives surely understand, but this book only seems to be available in hardback, whereas all my other Tintins are in paperback.

Marginalia:

Another weekend, another weekend away. This time I was up on the Central Coast of New South Wales for my grandfather’s 80th birthday. It’s always good, though rare, for my farflung family to get together on a joyful occasion. I didn’t get to look in any bookstores – apart from the airport ones while waiting for flights – but I did spot a small secondhand bookstore that I would have liked to have a browse through, alas I ran out of time. I imagine that the book stock in a town where it is difficult to find somewhere to eat out at 7pm on a Friday night would be great! Spoken like a true city slicker, I’m sure.

I thought all my Tintin books from an order a few weeks ago had arrived, so when this one turned up in the mailbox it was a very pleasant surprise!

• The Adventures of Tintin: The Broken Ear by Hergé

As for my book blogging dilemma, well. I’ve decided that reading too much about what a blog should be, what should be done to be successful, how often you should post, has had rather a negative effect on my own experience of blogging. Strict posting schedules needlessly stresses me out, obsessing about stats is, frankly, a waste of my time. So, I’m done with it! From now on I’m considering Start Narrative Here an online extension of my offline reading journal, rather than the ubiquitous “book review blog”. What does this mean? Longer and more personal reviews/post-reading write ups, and complete submission to my reading whims and fancies.

(This mini-manifesto is, of course, also subject to these own whims and fancies and perhaps I’ll look back on this as nothing but the rebellious adolescent period of my blog. However, I think it’s an ongoing struggle to evolve, define and grow in my blogging and reading endeavours.)

Surprisingly restrained considering my afternoon(s) spent in Kinokuniya in Sydney.

• Dash & Lily’s Book of Dares by Rachel Cohn and David Levithan
• The Adventures of Tintin: The Black Island by Hergé
• The Adventures of Tintin: The Crab with the Golden Claws by Hergé
• The Adventures of Tintin: King Ottokar’s Sceptre by Hergé
• The Adventures of Tintin: The Shooting Star by Hergé
• QI: The Second Book of General Ignorance by John Lloyd and John Mitchinson
• Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy
• Fresh Apples by Rachel Trezise
• Girl With Curious Hair by David Foster Wallace

Marginalia

I’ve had an amazing week. Words cannot even begin to express just how great it has been. I saw my favourite band the Manic Street Preachers for the first and second time, met them after both shows, and got a photo with Nicky Wire and James Dean Bradfield. This is a band that has shaped, influenced, changed, and inspired me for over twelve years, so this week was pretty damn important to me and they didn’t let me down. I was on the barrier for both shows, right up the front, screaming and singing my little lungs out. Amazing. And, to have the band be so gracious and attentive to their fans was just a bonus. Meeting fellow fans has also been an encouraging experience.

So, as it was, I didn’t exactly spend much time worrying about blogging. The only conclusion that I’ve managed to reach is that I want to continue writing about books and reading with enthusiasm and sincerity. Posting is going to continue being slightly irregular while I try and “figure things out.” Trust me, I am cringing as I write that. It sounds like the “it’s not you, it’s me” of book blogging.

• The Adventures of Tintin: The Blue Lotus by Hergé
• The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn by Hergé
• The Bee Hut: Poems 2001 – 2008 by Dorothy Porter
• Love Poems by Dorothy Porter
• The Best Australian Writing 2010 box set, including
  • The Best Australian Poems 2010 edited by Robert Adamson
  • The Best Australian Essays 2010 edited by Robert Drewe
  • The Best Australian Stories 2010 edited by Cate Kennedy

That’s right, I’m working on completing my Tintin library. And, to revisit my childhood and build anticipation for the feature film due out at the end of 2011, starting in December I will be reviewing and featuring one Tintin title a week, and maybe working on reading some of the peripheral Tintin material as well. This is by no means an official challenge, there are no “read 3 books, you’re a Calculus; read 10 books and down a bottle of whiskey for each, you’re a Haddock; read each book twice you’re a Thomson/Thompson” levels of participation, but if you’d care to join in rereading this classic series, please do!

Posted on Start Narrative Here this week:

• Praise by Andrew McGahan – for me, this Australian grunge ‘classic’ of doomed love and unemployment in the 1990s didn’t quite live up to its reputation.

Marginalia

My reviews and posting has been haphazard recently, and I’m not exactly sure why. Breaking the first rule of blogging, I do apologize for the lack of regularity on Start Narrative Here lately. I am going to take a break from posting over the next week and take the time to reassess my approach to book blogging and what I want to get out of it. Nothing dramatic, just a very short break to rejuvenate the ol’ blogging mojo.

Normal posting will resume on Sunday 21st of November, with a sensible book haul from my trip to Sydney. Hint that this will not be so: I’ve blacked out the better part of a day for the sole purpose of browsing Kinokuniya.

Two weeks in a row and no new books? It’s a wonder the publishing industry isn’t in crisis right now.

Posted on Start Narrative Here this week:

• An Eye on Carson McCullers: October 2010 – news, mentions and tidbits from around the internet about Carson McCullers, as well as a review of her rare book of children’s verse, Sweet as a Pickle and Clean as a Pig.
• The Exterminators by Simon Oliver & Tony Moore (2006-2008) – a review covering all five volumes of a graphic novel series about a group of flawed exterminators, reincarnated Egyptian bug worshippers and an army of mutant cockroaches.

Marginalia:

I’m sure you all came across Laura Miller’s controversial Nanowrimo article during the week. Her argument is problematic, sure, but this section jumped out at me:

“Rather than squandering our applause on writers — who, let’s face, will keep on pounding the keyboards whether we support them or not — why not direct more attention, more pep talks, more nonprofit booster groups, more benefit galas and more huzzahs to readers? Why not celebrate them more heartily? They are the bedrock on which any literary culture must be built. After all, there’s not much glory in finally writing that novel if it turns out there’s no one left to read it.”

She goes on to mention a reading challenge as an example of this, but I’m not sure that’s a good example of celebrating readers. Could it be that where the act of writing is aimed outward (outside of the self, toward an audience, toward publication, and so on) the act of reading is more internal, for the self, without larger social connections? Does that make sense? We aren’t celebrated because we, well, we largely read for ourselves, not for other people. Perhaps that’s why the book blogging community is so successful, because of its diversity, community and understanding that we all read different things for different reasons.

For the budget conscious reader, here is part one of Anastasia’s guide to buying books on a budget, and part two, on frugal ways of finding books to read. She mentions BigWords to compare prices, and for Australians I’d recommend using Booko, which serves a similar function, comparing book prices from a number of online stores and listing them from lowest to highest. And best of all, they also include shipping costs as a consideration. Booko’s saved me many dollars, many times. While researching a title we got in at work during the week on Booko, I discovered that a large Australian book chain is selling the same copy at roughly $70 above the retail recommended price. No wonder more and more people are turning toward online booksellers.

Not to forget the writer’s during this intense month of sustained writing activity, Cate Kennedy offers her 10 tips for writers.

I’ve just finished my last assignment of the semester, so I’m all done with studying for 2010 which means a.) work will be intense until the end of the year with the Christmas rush and store events and b.) lots of guilt free reading time! My reading has slowed down considerably since mid-October thanks to last minute studying, but I think that slump is almost ready to lift and I’m up for returning to my voracious reading habit again. I’m still following my “reading only books I own” goal for November, and I’ve got two special, and highly anticipated, books picked out to take with me for my trip to Sydney next weekend.

Nope, none! Zilch, nada.

Reviews posted on Start Narrative Here this week:

• The Wild Things by Dave Eggers - this hip adaptation of Sendak’s iconic picture book didn’t quite live up to my expectations.
• How It Feels by Brendan Cowell – actor/director/screenwriter turned novelist Brendan Cowell stuns with his debut, a tough look at masculinity and friendship in Australian suburbia.

Marginalia:

I had originally thought about announcing November as “No-new-book-November” this year, but I know myself too well, that’s never going to happen. Plus, I’m going away in a couple of weeks and that means there is always a portion of the travel budget put aside specifically for exploring new bookstores. So, that idea was never going to fly. Then I started thinking about why I maybe didn’t want to buy any new books – because I don’t read the ones I already own. Most of the books I’ve read lately come from the library – and I’m never going to give up library resources obviously – but what’s the use of relying solely on the library, when I have a fantastic collection of unread books available to me already. Of course, library books also come with the looming due date so I always feel inclined to read them before any that I own.

So, I’m not limiting my book buying habit this month, instead I’m resolving to read mainly books that I already own. I’m returning the unread library books and turning to my shelves. And my desk. And my haphazard stacks along the walls. October was a pretty average month for me reading-wise, so hopefully I’ll find something exciting, inspiring, frustrating or just entertaining.

Image credit: You will not escape by Francisco Goya, Caprichos, from Le peintre-graveur illustré (The painter-engraver illustrated) Vol. 14, by Loÿs Delteil, Paris, 1922. Found via Old Book Illustrations.

• Sweet as a Pickle and Clean as a Pig by Carson McCullers, illustrated by Rolf Gérard
• Jack Kerouac: King of the Beats by Barry Miles
• William Burroughs: El Hombre Invisible by Barry Miles
• Burmese Days by George Orwell
• The Clergyman’s Daughter by George Orwell

The most exciting acquisition this week would have to be finally getting my hands on a copy of the long out of print Sweet as a Pickle and Clean as a Pig, Carson McCullers’ book of children’s verse for a reasonable price. I’m going to write a bit more on it in my end of the month McCullers round up, but for now I will say that it is totally adorable.

Reviews posted on Start Narrative Here this week:

• The Accidental Billionaires: Sex, Money, Betrayal and the Founding of Facebook by Ben Mezrich – the story behind Facebook, and inspiration for the movie The Social Network, is presented in an annoying, pretentious style but rich in human drama.
• Life Sucks by Jessica Abel, Gabe Soria and Warren Pleece – vampires working in convenience stores for Romanian vampire masters? Like Reality Bites with vampires, but lacks the charisma or charm to make the romantic angle connect emotionally.

Marginalia:

I am currently pining for Sydney and greatly anticipating my trip there in a few weeks to see the Manic Street Preachers, and so much of my internet browsing has been preoccupied with finding things to do, places to eat, bookstores to explore while I’m there. Nonetheless:

• Alexander Chee On Teaching the Graphic Novel. I never got to study graphic novels at university, but this piece did remind me of a subject I took called “Game Studies” which was studying, analysing and critiquing video games and their surrounding culture. This also included a class excursion to a games arcade! I know it sounds like it was just another waste of time Arts subject, but it was actually the most challenging, intellectually stimulating, encouraging and fun subject I ever did in my degree. Off topic.
• Martin Amis on Philip Larkin’s letters to Monica Jones in the latest collection Letters to Monica.
• This week I also discovered a little piece of Melbourne history on Project Gutenberg: Cole’s Funny Picture Book No. 1! I loved reading this stuff as a kid and earlier this year learned a bit more about the man behind them, iconic Melbourne figure Edward William Cole. Here’s an excerpt from a poem he wrote featured in the Funny Picture Book, called “Value of Books”:

BOOKS therefore, are, of all man buys,
The choicest thing on earth,
BOOKS have, of all his household goods,
The most intrinsic worth.

BOOKS are the greatest blessing out,
The grandest thing we sell,
BOOKS bring more joy, BOOKS do more good
Than mortal tongue can tell.

Image credit: Northern portion of Cole’s Book Arcade, Melbourne, Australia from Project Gutenberg. If only I could time travel!

Kind of a ridiculously huge haul this week. If the mailbox isn’t empty, it is stuffed full. With the Australian dollar at a twenty-seven year high at the moment, this is likely to continue.

• The Discomfort Zone: A Personal History by Jonathan Franzen
• Making Modern Melbourne by Jenny Lee
• Allen Ginsberg: Beat Poet by Barry Miles
• The Dharma Bums by Jack Kerouac
• Melbourne Remade: The Inner City Since the 70s by Seamus O’Hanlon [review]
• Coming Up for Air by George Orwell
• The Road to Wigan Pier by George Orwell
• The Selected Letters of Tennessee Williams: Volume 1 1920-1945 edited by Albert J. Devlin & Nancy M. Tischler
• The Selected Letters of Tennessee Williams: Volume 2 1945-1957 edited by Albert J.  Devlin & Nancy M. Tischler

Reviews Posted on Start Narrative Here this week:

• Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs: A Low Culture Manifesto by Chuck Klosterman – more self-involved narcissism disguised as popular culture journalism.
• Transmetropolitan: Volume Six, Gouge Away by Warren Ellis and Darick Robertson – how far will Spider Jerusalem take his crusade against the Smiler? And how far will the Smiler go for revenge against Spider?
• Melbourne Remade: The Inner City Since the 70s by Seamus O’Hanlon – covering the transformation of key Melbourne structures and buildings over the past 40 years.

Links:

I spent much of the second half of the week blacked out by a migraine, so the only thing I could think of ranting about were the pharmaceutical industry and healthcare industry in general. But, then I googled my doctor and discovered that he is something of an avid Dungeons & Dragons player and so all is, until the next debilitating migraine at least, forgotten. “We’ve got a level 26 booknerd who has been attacked by a vicious migraine maelstrom. Roll die to determine next move.”

Anyway, links:

• Are these the book bloggers of the future? Results of the Guardian’s Young Critics competition.
• Anastasia of Birdbrain(ed) Book Blog is organizing a Book Blogger Holiday Card Exchange as a cheaper and more international friendly alternative to the gift exchanges that go on as we draw closer to the end of the year. Write in a card about something bookish, receive a card with something bookish inside. Brilliant!
• Douglas Coupland‘s The Radical Pessimist’s Guide to the Next 10 Years – “You’ve become a notch in the Internet’s belt. Don’t try to delude yourself that you’re a romantic lone individual. To the new order, you’re just a node. There is no escape.” Swoon.
• Bret Easton Ellis guest programmed the iconic all night video program Rage when he was here in August and his selection aired last night.
• The Reading Ape asks Are Book Blogs the Next Big Threat to Independent Bookstores? While I’m not entirely convinced by the argument, it is interesting to consider. Don’t the two, ultimately, serve completely different functions? Albeit with some similarities, obviously the promotion of the written word, but one is a business, one is a hobby, mostly a personal pursuit. Yes, independent bookstores are facing a number of threats but I think book blogs, great as they are, are relatively low on the list.

Image: The Reader by Frank W. Benson (1910)

• How to Be Alone: Essays by Jonathan Franzen [review]
• Child of God by Cormac McCarthy
• Outer Dark by Cormac McCarthy
• Richard by Ben Myers

Reviews posted on Start Narrative Here this week:

• The Alcoholic by Jonathan Ames and Dean Haspiel – a graphic novel memoir of alcohol addiction that is both funny and heartfelt.
• Running the Books: The Adventures of an Accidental Prison Librarian by Avi Steinberg – a look at life behind the bars in a prison library for both inmates and staff.
• Mad Men Unbuttoned: A Romp Through 1960s America by Natasha Vargas-Cooper – an interesting, if brief, introduction to the social, cultural and historical contexts of the television show Mad Men.

24 Hour Readathon Overview:

Total number of pages read: 981
Total number of books read: 5 – 3 graphic novels, 1 non-fiction, 1 novel.
Total number of hours spent reading: 9.5

Well, that was something else. There’s still an hour and a half to go until the official end of the Readathon, but I’m throwing in the towel now. It seems that nothing can get between me and my need for sleep. I’m thinking, should I participate next time, I’ll have to make sure it’s not after a full day of work on very little sleep in the first place. That said, it was fun, if totally draining! Who knew sitting around and reading could be so exhausting! A massive shout out and hearty thanks to the cheerleaders and well-wishers that dropped by to offer their encouragement: Amanda, Cass, Colleen, Collette, Julie, Mae, Marg, Samantha & Softdrink.

Here’s what I got through in the 9.5 hours I was reading:

• Life Sucks by Jessica Abel, Gabe Soria & Warren Pleece
• The Accidental Billionaires: Sex, Money, Betrayal and the Founding of Facebook by Ben Mezrich
• The Wild Things by Dave Eggers
• The Exterminators: Volume One, Bug Brothers by Simon Oliver & Tony Moore
• The Exterminators: Volume Two, Insurgency by Simon Oliver, Tony Moore, Ande Parks & Chris Samnee

Somewhat lighter than my usual fare, but perhaps that was necessary to keep up the momentum. I’m pretty pleased with the effort, though I expected I would get through more. That’s okay, better to have too much to read than not enough. I’m not sure how I’m going to write about them, but I’m sure my thoughts on these books will be appearing here sometime over the next couple of weeks. Until then, I think it is time for some blessed, uninterrupted, deep sleep.

• The Twenty-Seventh City by Jonathan Franzen
• Harold Pinter: Plays Volume 1 by Harold Pinter

The Pinter volume, sadly, arrived slightly damaged from the Book Depository. Enough to make me contact them and politely complain. The good folk at BD were kind enough to offer me a partial refund, which I thought was a good option. And then I used that refund to buy more books. Control, restraint, these concepts are foreign to me when it comes to book buying.

Posted on Start Narrative Here this week:

• The Shallows: What the Internet is Doing to Our Brains by Nicholas Carr – an eye-opening look at how digital technologies are changing the way the brain reads, organizes and comprehends information.
• Killing Yourself to Live: 85% of a True Story by Chuck Klosterman – a road trip to visit places musicians have died ends up being a tale of romantic introspection: 85% self-indulgent.
• An Eye on Carson McCullers: September 2010 – a round up of news and discussions about Carson McCullers.

E-reader reviews:

I haven’t made a decision yet, but I have been thinking about it. Here’s what some of my favourite book blogging ladies are saying about their e-readers:

• Steph from My Girl Friday shares her thoughts on her new Sony Reader pocket edition.
• Amanda from Desert Book Chick gives a considered review of Amazon’s Kindle after two months of using it.

Anyone else care to share more thoughts, feelings, persuasive arguments for or against e-readers? Is it the way of the future for reading and for publishing or just a temporary response to a larger problem of obsolescence of traditional forms of literacy in the technological age? Start Narrative Here: asking the easy questions on your Sunday night.

Image credit: Vase de fleurs à la fenêtre by Paul Gauguin, 1881.

• Jack Kerouac: Selected Letters 1940-1956 by Jack Kerouac, edited by Ann Charters
• Running the Books: The Adventures of an Accidental Prison Librarian by Avi Steinberg

The Kerouac letters, volume one of two, was a lucky find. I was browsing my Book Depository wishlist and saw that it had gone out of stock, so I checked it on booko.com.au to see if anywhere else had it in. Turns out an Australian vendor had it in for the princely sum of $3.95. That my friends is what we call a score.

Reviews Posted on Start Narrative Here this week:

• The Stars in the Bright Sky by Alan Warner – the sequel to The Sopranos sees the school girls from the port reuniting in their early twenties for a holiday, only things don’t go quite to plan.
• The Taqwacores by Michael Muhammad Knight – Muslim punks coming of age, going on road trips and putting on a show. A lot of flawed fun.

Getting rid of your books

This weekend, frustrated while going through my bookshelves  – “argh how can someone have so many books and nothing to READ?” – I decided to start getting rid of some of my books. Ones I know I’m never going to read again or already have double copies of. I thought about putting them on BookMooch but the range of books available to swap them for (which goes against the point of getting rid of books in the first place, I suppose) seemed pretty dire. Lots of mass market paperbacks I have no interest in, the ones you see hundreds of copies of at op shops anyway. So scratch that idea. I’m thinking of maybe going the eBay route, though it’ll take a lot of energy and effort, maybe it will be worth it? My tentative plan is to start reading more of the books I already own and haven’t read yet, and keeping them around only if they turn out to be an absolute favourite. This plan is barely twenty four hours old, so who knows how or if I’ll stick to it.

Do you get rid of your old books? How? Donate them to a library or hospital? Stick them in a box and place them on the curb with a sign saying “FREE BOOKS”? Pass them out to unsuspecting strangers (“hello sir, you look reasonably well-adjusted, here’s some J.G. Ballard to help undo all of that for you!”)?

• The Book of Disquiet by Fernando Pessoa

This is a really lovely paperback edition from Serpent’s Tail classics, and I can already tell that this is going to be a book I’ll like. I’ve just been flicking through the pages and already so many ideas, sentences and concepts resonate. I placed a Book Depository order the other night at 4.30am when I couldn’t sleep, now to sit with the anticipation of all those singularly sent padded envelopes. Well, the anticipation will come after they’ve been dispatched. Until then, there will be obsessive checking of the order status. Processing, processing, processing.

Reviews Posted on Start Narrative Here this week

I did take something of an unannounced break from blogging this week, a result of my recent reading rut and feeling generally burned out and disillusioned with blogging itself. A sort of defeatist “oh, why bother?!” if you will allow me to indulge, although my attitude is usually littered with more expletives. I go through this from time to time, but it seemed to hit pretty hard over the past couple of weeks and it felt like a break was necessary.

That the break coincided with the excitement of Book Blogger Appreciation Week was just damn good timing, like I was invited to the party, but jumped over the back fence and chilled out on my own in a park somewhere. Hopefully my short absence wasn’t too sorely felt. Never fear though, my mojo is back and I will be bringing you the book love three times a week again from tomorrow on. This week, however, I only posted one shorter than usual review,

• Transmetropolitan: Volume Five, Lonely City by Warren Ellis & Darick Robertson – when it comes to writing reviews of Transmetropolitan I basically just want to shout from my little online rooftop here, “I love this series. I LOVE THIS SERIES! I @#*^ING LOVE THIS SERIES!!!” I don’t know how well that would go down, so I attempted to put something semi-coherent together instead.

Don’t smoke, don’t drink, don’t fuck: Defining “straight edge”¹

Forget about all the text speak, my favourite new addition to the New American Oxford Dictionary? Straightedge. Though to be honest I’ve always encountered it as “straight edge” rather than as one word, but hey the Oxford says otherwise. I’m sure that Oxford have more lexicographical authority than the punk police. The Oxford definition:

straightedge (esp. among fans of hardcore punk music) having an ascetic or abstinent lifestyle: he’s so straightedge that he won’t even take Tylenol when he has a headache.

It seems a strange choice for inclusion now, given the thirty year history of the subculture. Although my own ties with punk have waned over the past couple of years, straight edge seems to be a subculture that has, for the most part, faded from view. Maybe this comes from not having to go to all ages shows any more, where the adolescent refusal seemed a more rebellious stance to take in the face of peer pressure. Straight edge until 21, as the saying went. When I do go to punk shows, I always wonder where the kids with the X’d hands are now.

I wrote so many essays on this sub-subculture at university, in a vain attempt to bring personal and cultural relevance to stodgy old academia. Bless Arts degrees. The Oxford definition seems vague, while at the same time being accurate. Like any subculture, straight edge has multiple definitions, strains and nuances that a dictionary definition just can’t cover. It’s more than just abstinence, abstinence alone doesn’t make one edge – it is participation in a particular culture and community that defines straight edge. It’s a staunch refusal to buy into a certain cultural idea perpetuated by rock and roll, punk, and mainstream culture, yet in this refusal straight edge creates its own cultural ideal. It is at times defined by a braying mob mentality, can be violently vengeful and stinks of hyper-masculine bullshit. That’s not to say that it is an entirely negative force, just that the positive aspects were easily corrupted and co-opted by the more boisterous and vocal adherents.

How can a dictionary definition cover all of that?

It looks like there have been many more books published on the topic since my time at university, which is encouraging. If you are inspired to delve into the contradictory, problematic and complex subculture of the newly dictionary defined straight edge, here’s a brief reading list to gently guide you. Some of these I have read, some I will be checking out in the near future.

• The chapter on Minor Threat in Our Band Could Be Your Life: Scenes From the American Indie Underground 1981-1991 by Michael Azerrad [reviewed here], the band credited with coining the term and the concept.
• All Ages: Reflections on Straight Edge by Beth Lahickey – interviews with members of straight edge bands and others involved in the culture, showcases the wide variety of definitions that existed and stemmed from a single common idea. More than anything, straight edge is an intensely personal ideology of how and what to consume; though it has the group mentality and conformity aspect to it as well.
• Dance of Days: Two Decades of Punk in the Nation’s Capital by Mark Andersen and Mark Jenkins.
• American Hardcore: A Tribal History by Stephen Blush (with the second edition due out in November)
• Sober Living for the Revolution: Hardcore Punk, Straight Edge and Radical Politics by Gabriel Kuhn
• Straight Edge: Hardcore Punk, Clean-Living Youth, and Social Change by Ross Haenfler

^{1 Can you tell I miss the formulaic titles of academic writing?}

Other potential soapbox topics from the week: the bitter and somewhat hateful response from established authors over the choice of Jonathan Franzen’s Freedom for Oprah’s Book Club. Could it be resentment of his ability to reach both critical and popular success that is causing the offense? It’s turning a bit into a crusade against Franzen himself rather than questions of legitimacy, coverage and gender bias in critical culture.

• Manic Streets of Perth: Anthology by Dave Franklin
• Word Virus: A William Burroughs Reader edited by James Grauerholz and Ira Silverberg
• Having Cried Wolf by Gretchen Shirm

The cover of Manic Streets of Perth reminds me an Australian Manic Street Preachers fanzine I once read (that was also, now that I think about it, from Perth) where the writers recreated the cover of This Is My Truth Tell Me Yours. I was very surprised to find the Burroughs reader in an op shop this week (it must sound like I’m always in and out of op shops by the way I talk about them on this blog, but I only visit them once a week, if that. It’s just that when I do go, I always walk out with, usually, at least one book!) after having watched the documentary about him last week. Hopefully this will be a good way to dip in to his work, see what intrigues me and follow on from there. I also feel like the slightly peculiar smell emanating from this book makes it just that more Burroughsian. Hey, it was 50 cents.

Reviews posted on Start Narrative Here this week

• Monday Mini-Reviews: 3.14159, grammar & gossip girls – “capsule reviews”, as I discovered they are known, of As Easy As Pi: Stuff About Numbers That Isn’t (Just) Maths by Jamie Buchan, My Grammar & I (Or Should That Be ‘Me’?): Old-School Ways to Sharpen Your English by Caroline Taggart and J.A. Wines, and All I Want is Everything (Gossip Girl #3) by Cecily von Ziegesar.
• Transmetropolitan: Volume Four, the New Scum by Warren Ellis and Darick Robertson – a welcome return to Spider Jerusalem and political corruption in the City.

Book Criticism, Blogs and Boredom

This week I went to a session at Melbourne’s Wheeler Centre on the position of book criticism in Australia. It was a very uneven session, and I think it spoke mainly about a less “connected” reading audience that us. The discussion centred mainly on criticism in print, the book pages in newspapers and journals. Blogging was briefly mentioned, but let’s just say we weren’t too high on the agenda. I say we, but like I’ve said before, I don’t consider myself a critic – I’m a reader first and foremost. (Though I am wondering if this is contributing to my slight blogging burnout as of late.) That said, don’t these blog posts we write and read and retweet and link to all contribute to a larger discussion about literary culture that is just as relevant as the out of touch dinosaurs writing for print publication. There seems to be a strong connection made between print and legitimacy.  Are one hundred word capsule reviews really considered literary criticism? Apparently, if they’re in print, they are a lesser part of the criticism culture; if they’re online, they’re just written by internet cowboys trying to shanghai the serious, canonical cultural discussion. It’s frustrating.

When was the last time you consulted a newspaper review looking for a book to read? Or a literary journal? I know I’m asking a particular audience, a blog reading audience, but I am curious to hear your responses.

Then again, one audience member got up during the question time to say “lift your game, this is boring” so maybe I’ll end the discussion/rant there. Maybe thrashing out these issues is boring, irrelevant and pointless. Here’s a couple of other people talking about the topic in a more coherent way than I can, especially as they’re more involved in that culture:

• Feeding the Hand that Bites: the Demise of Australian Literary Reviewing by Gideon Haigh.
• Bugger the bloggers: old-world critics still count by Geordie Williamson for the Australian.
• Failing Critical Failure: the problem with engaging in real conversation about literary criticism by Rebecca Starford at Kill Your Darlings – a direct response from a panel member on the points raised on the night.

Links

• I found this list of the Best Southern novels “of all time” as compiled by the Oxford American magazine. And then added the list to my own site to keep track of my gradual progress. I love lists, problematic as they are.
• The runners up for Merriam-Webster’s Words of the Summer.
• William Gibson lists his top 5 London novels for Goodreads, including J.G. Ballard‘s Concrete Island which I reviewed a few months back.
• Jonathan Franzen interviewed by Goodreads.

Not mentioned in this post, though I did type it up and seriously considered posting it: a story about a man who insulted me for reading at the pub by using, I think unknowingly, a Dorothy Parker quip.

Do you have any suggested remedies for breaking out of a reading rut? Or do you just ride it out until the urge to read hits again?

Posts on Start Narrative Here this week:

• Recently Abandoned: August 2010 – the books I couldn’t get through last month.
• The Killer Inside Me by Jim Thompson – a quietly terrifying novel about a psychotically murderous deputy sheriff.

Last night I saw a documentary, William S. Burroughs: A Man Within (Yony Leyser, 2009), which explored the life and work of, you guessed it, one William S. Burroughs. Despite being more of a Kerouac and Ginsberg fan when it comes to the Beats, I really want to read more Burroughs. Maybe not the best thing to dive into when reluctant to read at all, but eventually. I read Junky, Queer and Interzone many moons ago, in high school, but perceptions and approaches change, and I think I’d like to see how I would read them now.

My high school fascination with the Beats was so well known – by the school librarians who I endlessly bothered with requests for Beat books from other libraries (we were a part of the local library system) – that at the end of year 12 when it came to the graduation ceremony, I was given an award, basically, for showing an active interest in reading, writing and libraries. Nerd then, nerd now. Anyway, I was presented with a lovely hardback edition of Kerouac’s letters. When I went to thank the librarian (polite nerd then, not so polite nerd now), she asked if there had been anything in the book itself. Nope. Then she let poor graduating high school student me know that the prize was actually for $250, but they needed something to present it in. I eventually got the cheque, and the moral of this story is: crime may not pay, but reading sometimes does.

• The Day of Creation by J.G. Ballard
• High-Rise by J.G. Ballard
• Hollywood Ending by Kathy Charles [review here]
• Strong Motion by Jonathan Franzen
• Utopian Man by Lisa Lang
• The Guerilla Art Kit: Everything You Need to Put Your Message Out Into the World by Keri Smith
• How to Be An Explorer of the World by Keri Smith

At the Melbourne Writer’s Festival today I was lucky enough to get the lovely Ms. Charles to sign my copy of Hollywood Ending in her signature almost matching the cover pink pen. She should be congratulated for very admirably tolerating my awkward self!

I’m excited to read Lisa Lang’s Utopian Man, her fictional take on the life of Edward William Cole, a historical figure from 1880s Melbourne who owned a massive (two city blocks!) book arcade. She also wrote a biography on Cole a few years back and I reviewed it in January. The Keri Smith’s were found in an op shop, and were such an unexpected op shop find that I had to snap them up. Some of it is a bit too artsy-cutesy-hipstery but I think there are some really postive ideas in her work as well.

Reviews posted on Start Narrative Here this week:

• Monday Mini-Reviews: short reviews of The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: Century: 1910 by Alan Moore & Kevin O’Neill, Books Do Furnish a Room by Leslie Geddes-Brown and A Certain Je Ne Sais Quoi by Chloe Rhodes.
• How to Be Alone: Essays by Jonathan Franzen: a collection of essays that appear more relevant to today’s culture than the time they were written in: on technology, the decay of the distinction between public and private, on the act of reading.
• The Dirt: Confessions of the World’s Most Notorious Rock Band by Tommy Lee, Mick Mars, Vince Neil and Nikki Sixx with Neil Strauss: sex, drugs, rock and roll – and that’s just the beginning of this sordid tale of rock debauchery.

Sadly, there’s no debauchery at my house tonight and the only pills I’m popping are antihistamines. Yes, a cup of tea and an early night are definitely in order tonight.

• In the Beginning: My Life With the Manic Street Preachers by Jenny Watkins-Isnardi

The book is written by a former girlfriend of one of the band members from before they were famous and it looks completely trashy. Rather than an actual memoir it appears that it might be better to read it as fiction. I mean, really, who memorizes entire conversations verbatim? However, given the number of Manics related coincidences that I’ve been noticing lately, I just couldn’t help myself. I found it during an impromptu trip to an op shop and was really unimpressed with the book selection but saw this. It was priced at $4 which I was a bit unsure of, I just felt really guilty about spending that much money – even second hand! – on something that is so obviously a cash in on a brief relationship with someone who went on to become quite famous. When I, reluctantly, took it to the counter the woman only charged me $2 for it, which didn’t feel as bad. I’m a little ashamed that I actually now own this, but for the sake of complete disclosure here it is on this week’s loot. This is an issue, such as it is, I’m sure to confront again when I read the fictionalized account of Richey Edwards in Ben Myers’ Richard, released in October.

About the postcard pictured above, isn’t it sweet?! It arrived in my September copy of Good Reading magazine. A lovely new mantra, one that should prove valuable as the nation deals with political limbo. Keep calm and keep reading, keep calm and keep reading.

Reviews posted on Start Narrative Here this week:

• Everything: A Book About Manic Street Preachers by Simon Price: a culturally and critically aware music biography of one of my favourite bands.
• Exchange by Paul Magrs: appeals to the bibliophilic tendencies but then, sadly, rallies against that love by the end of the novel.
• The Slap by Christos Tsiolkas: the novel that has sparked debate and conversation among so many Australians, now reaching out to a wider audience thanks to be longlisted for the Man Booker Prize.

I hope all of you caught my guest post over at Desert Book Chick this week. I wrote some, hopefully, useful questions to consider when reading a classic book, or anything that you’re feeling a bit apprehensive about reading. Many thanks to Amanda for having me, and a warm welcome to any new readers who have dropped by via her blog. While you’re reading my post over there, I recommend you listen to her podcast Books & Blogging and check out her recent post about the problems with giveaways which has incited something of a furore! Some advice: make sure you read her post before unleashing your fury. In questioning the ubiquitous young adult fiction book giveaway, she seems to have touched a very raw nerve of readers of young adult fiction. Hop on over and see what you think.

• A brief post on female characters in graphic novels over at the Vertigo blog from comics author Chris Roberson who specializes in writing strong female characters. I appreciate the sentiment, but does he have to do it while infantilizing himself, and therefore female interests, ie. “interests of an eight year old girl”?
• The always fascinating Listverse provides a list of the top ten theatre superstitions and their origins.
• And finally, a depressing sign of the times: The Millions has a look at authors featured on the cover of Time magazine over the decades. Do you think the dwindling number of authors featured represents a similar depreciation of literature as a major force in our culture?

Keep calm and keep reading!

• All the President’s Men by Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward
• Howards End by E. M. Forster
• My Brilliant Career by Miles Franklin
• Where You Find It by Janice Galloway
• Island by Aldous Huxley
• Setting Free the Bears by John Irving
• The Armies of the Night by Norman Mailer
• Chickenhawk by Robert Mason
• Harold Pinter: Plays Volume Three by Harold Pinter
• Tortilla Flat by John Steinbeck
• The Pearl by John Steinbeck

Over the past year or so I’ve become more inclined to buy new/remaindered books, mainly thanks to a.) working in a remainder bookstore, b.) working in a “normal” bookstore and c.) The Book Depository. When I was younger, and even sometimes now, I bought a lot of second hand books. What I love about them is thinking about the journey they’ve taken to end up in a particular store. How did a Vintage Classics copy of Aldous Huxley’s Island bought in Indonesia for 40 000 RP end up for sale for $2 in a suburban Salvation Army store? Why did someone buy Volume 3 of Harold Pinter’s plays from Monash University bookstore and how did it end up unread in a second hand bookstore by the train station? What was originally in the envelope in All the President’s Men that was then used as a bookmark, forgotten about at page 42? I like to think about these stories, in addition to those contained within the text.

This week I was also suffering from what I not so fondly refer to as perma-headache. Not quite as intense as a migraine, but painful enough to be constantly aware of the throbbing pain in my head. Very annoying. And in my birthday week as well! There were some exciting things happening despite perma-headache. My favourite band, Manic Street Preachers, who I’ve loved since my early teens, announced their first Australian tour in ELEVEN YEARS! This means I’m currently planning another trip to Sydney to see them play in two capital cities in November. I’d been looking for an excuse to visit Sydney again after going there (again, for a band) in March, and this is the perfect reason. There’ll be more about this band in tomorrow’s review, as the tour was not only announced on my birthday but while I was reading a biography about them. Pretty amazing coincidence.

This week Bret Easton Ellis was in town, and I went and saw him interviewed at the Athenaeum Theatre on Friday night. It was such a great night, Ellis was in top form, funny and irreverent. I met him briefly afterwards, he signed a couple of my books (including the battered copy of Less Than Zero I’ve been reading and rereading since I was sixteen) and posed for a few photos with me. I look insanely happy. He was very lovely, chatty and warm. When my sister accidentally took a photo of us while he was looking away he insisted that she retake it as he wanted to be looking at the camera. While I don’t really get the whole book signing thing, I’m very happy that I got to meet him.

I read Imperial Bedrooms this week, and I’m not going to review it for the blog. It was difficult to get out of review mindset and just read for pleasure, to really immerse myself in the book and enjoy it – that’s not to say that I don’t enjoy the books I do review but it’s a completely different approach to read without that critical distance. Does that make sense? I’m sure that I’ll be rereading it in the future and then I will write up my thoughts on it, but for now I was really pleased to just read the latest book from one of my favourite authors. Heh, maybe some time in the future someone will pick up my signed copy of Imperial Bedrooms and wonder who Jess was and why the book ended up in a second hand bookstore.

• The Signet Classic Book of Southern Short Stories edited by Dorothy Abbott and Susan Koppelman
• The Notebooks of F. Scott Fitzgerald edited by Matthew J. Bruccoli
• Everything: A Book About Manic Street Preachers by Simon Price
• The Magnificent Ambersons by Booth Tarkington

A few months after purchasing it on ebay, The Notebooks of F. Scott Fitzgerald finally arrived. I’d accepted that it had probably been lost in the post, and emailed the seller who was on holiday at the time. When they returned from their trip they told me that the book had been sent back to them as my address had been rubbed off the package! Very pleased that it wasn’t the victim of some sort of postal conspiracy.

This is the 52nd Book Loot post, which means that Start Narrative Here has been around for almost a year! (And I don’t even want to think about just how many books have been amassed in that time.) My first review was posted on a wordpress hosted site on the 11th of August, 2009 – and I decided that I wanted my own space and bought the domain a week later on the 18th of August, 2009. Starting a book blog was a project aimed at learning to express myself again after a really horrible year, and it has quickly become much more than just a nerdy recovery method. It has reinvigorated and reaffirmed my love of the written word. To anyone that has commented, read, recommended, emailed or even lurked over the past year, thank you so much.

Image from tumblr.